The Strange Archive presents speculative artworks that reimagine the archive as a living, contested space rather than a static repository. “To make strange” is to see again: here, the archive signals a site of care, continuity, and labour that remains porous and reflexive, shaped by omission and desire. Bringing into view unsurfaced narratives, displaced locations, and the lives of arts communities and social worlds that have slipped from public memory.
Curated by Adrian Tan and featuring artists Akai Chew, Koh Nguang How in collaboration with David Lee, Ezekiel Wong, and Wong Zi Hao, each artist’s practice contributes to this rethinking of the archive. The featured works unfold as speculative propositions- drawings, moving images, typologies, maquettes, and a commemorative exhibition that stretch the possibilities of the archival source. Alongside them, tables of materials, prototypes, and printed matter form a secondary terrain of research and inquiry. Together, these elements create an ecology of gestures and encounters that keep the archive open, strange, and in continual motion.
For more information check out: www.strangearchive.sg
The Strange Archive
Dates: 17 January to 1 February 2026
Venue: Tanjong Pagar Distripark, 37 Keppel Road, #04-01D, Singapore 089064
Website: thestrangearchive.sg
Fig 1. The Strange Archive (opening night, 17 January 2026)
An exhibition of speculative design and artistic practices engaging Singapore’s archival records, exploring maps, public spaces, secret societies,
and the vernacular culture and architecture of Southeast Asia.
The Strange Archive
Dates: 17 January to 1 February 2026
Venue: Tanjong Pagar Distripark, 37 Keppel Road, #04-01D, Singapore 089064
Website: thestrangearchive.sg
Fig 2. The Strange Archive (documentation of exhibition and artworks)
[Foreground]
SINGAPORE ART ARCHIVE PROJECT (KOH NGUANG HOW)
Timeline of Equator Art Society Exhibitions
(1956–1974)
2026
Archival materials with brass inlays on table
Variable dimensions
The Strange Archive
Dates: 17 January to 1 February 2026
Venue: Tanjong Pagar Distripark, 37 Keppel Road, #04-01D, Singapore 089064
Website: thestrangearchive.sg
Fig 4.
SPECULATIVE FUTURES (WONG ZI HAO)
Seed Palace
2025
Cardboard, wood, string, acrylic paint
450 × 624 mm
Fireflies and Constellations
2025
Pencil and ink on pricked paper with light box
950 × 550 mm
EZEKIEL WONG
Wu Ji Lai, Qi Kua Mai
2025
Graphite on paper
300 × 457 mm
The Strange Archive
Dates: 17 January to 1 February 2026
Venue: Tanjong Pagar Distripark, 37 Keppel Road, #04-01D, Singapore 089064
Website: thestrangearchive.sg
Fig 3.
AKAI CHEW
A Survey of Absent Places: Precinct N1 / Precinct N3, 2026
Archival printing on cotton rag
A Liminal Desire to Exist, 2026
Video
Reclamation and Redemption, 2026
Sand, GAN-generated video, found objects
North Bridge Garden, 2026
Print on aluminium
16 cut-out pieces
The Strange Archive
Dates: 17 January to 1 February 2026
Venue: Tanjong Pagar Distripark, 37 Keppel Road, #04-01D, Singapore 089064
Website: thestrangearchive.sg
Fig 5.
The Strange Archive (opening night, 17 January 2026)
SINGAPORE ART ARCHIVE PROJECT (KOH NGUANG HOW) and DAVID LEE
EAS 70
2026
Installation
Variable dimensions











































